Also while I’m on the sdhl I don’t feel too worried about them losing some of their top talent over the last few years (I think this PWHL expansion round did hit them the hardest as it was so many spots opening up plus post Olympics) primarily due to how much better the Swedish development system has become over the last half decade to fill those spots, and also the amount of international talent in general being produced looking to play there
Right now it seems Frölunda and Brynäs are really the only teams that are offering somewhat comparable standards to PWHL teams (obviously some give and take, PWHL teams have higher salary ceilings and better quality of competition, but if you’re a European born player you then have to deal with visa nonsense, the possibility of trades/not choosing where you live if you’re drafted, all the logistics of moving, and the high possibility that you will not be in the higher end of the salary bracket as those are limited) which is how they’ve been able to keep players like Nylund, Čajanova, Nystrøm, Elin Svensson, Rantala, Dalen, Olsson, and get players like Meixner and Tulus and Peslarová back
However, something critical those two teams do is being very very good at developing and recruiting talent at the youth level with players like Hesselvall, Danielsson, Stridh, Westerlind, Nellie Svensson, Grillfors, Engström, etc. that doesn’t happen without a strong commitment to women’s hockey that makes players want to play there (which is why those teams can recruit players like Nix and Leidt from other SDHL teams), and makes it easier to replace stars who do leave for ncaa /pwhl.
Luleå is in a weird spot I think because their dominance came from being one of the first to financially commit to women’s hockey in the league but that’s no longer the case, and they’ve always been more free agent and pro development focused than youth development focused. Probably the best path that we see them already pivotin too is to 1) look for talent in under scouted countries like they have been with Japan and Italy 2) entice players coming out of the ncaa with the plan of “give us two years and we’ll develop you and you can have many PWHL offers instead of fighting for a spot at training camp like we helped mattivi,” particularly players coming out of schools that seem to get less interest from current PWHL gms. I said before but they’d be a great fit for Stefanie Bourque, or to try to entice a player like Lucia Haluskova from the Swiss league
SDE runs a similar strategy to Luleå in terms of looking more towards international free agents to fill out the top of the team, they’ve landed some good “didn’t make PWHL out of training camp but clearly have potential” players like David and Cogan, and always take some interest in players from smaller hockey nations like Netherlands, Norway, etc. so far they’re recruited Zsofia Pazmandi and Martina Fedel this offseason and I think both are really good fits for the team.
Modo is kind of the last “top” team (sorry other Sdhl teams) and they do a decent job both developing and recruiting but do face the problem of having their players, particularly young home grown ones, look to Brynäs/Frölunda/luleå once they hit a certain point in their career, having lost Sundin/engström/Ebba Hedqvist/brändli to those teams in recent years. To be fair this happens to SDE too, but feels less impactful bc short term free agents are their plan outside of the small core they’ve had for a decade. They are good enough that they attract quite a few free agents (they’ve done good with PWHL fringe players and up and coming Czech players) and developing stars but not good enough that they keep them even when those players stay in the league. Once they can figure out how to at least do that, they will be able to be more serious contender
All of this to say…the sdhl has changed so so much in recent years. Undeniably even in the last two years PWHL expansion and the fact that there’s more spot and salary slots to go around has made it more enticing for european players which means saying goodbye to some of the top scorers as we’ve seen. Yet it’s also been timely as Swedish youth hockey has gotten better so there’s a better league for these u18 stars to get a cup of coffee in, and players from smaller hockey nations which have also grown a lot but don’t get scouted so much are more likely to land a spot on a team that has the resources to help them improve, so I’m not overall worried about the health of the league even with losing players like Nieminen and Holopainen. Not to mention still many established great players like Thuvik or Lundin or Olsson who understandably are happy to stay in the league and continue to grow their national league
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